Wow…just wow. Just watched the Star Trek: The Animated Series episode “The Slaver Weapon.” By Larry Niven. Of course supposedly most of these episodes aren’t considered canon. But still wouldn’t it be neat to imagine encounters between Larry Niven’s universe and Star Trek’s universe?
Which Kzin? Early-encounter Kzin? Or those who have been…tempered…by The Longest War?
Not sure. It’s been too long since I’ve read Larry Niven. Does the quote “It’s been a long time since I’ve tasted a human.” give you any clue? They talk about a fairly recent war between the Federation and the Kzin too.
The Kzinti appear in a few other non-canon places - the Star Fleet Universe game, for instance.
Also, apparently, there have been multiple plans to bring them into canon - Manny Coto says if Enterprise hadn’t been cancelled, there’d have been a Kzinti episode in season 5, which would have been based partially on a post-movie TOS-era CGI project. (Yet another reason to be ticked that they canned the series just as it found its feet.)
TAS was, as I recall, excellent. Though I haven’t seen any since the early 70s, I recall it being often better than TOS.
I’ve played the Kzin in Star Fleet Battles. They’re a pain in the ass, because they have so many things to keep track of–bunch of drones and fighters. The ship designs are pretty neat, and they can hang with the Federation or the Klingons if played well.
I haven’t played SFB in ages, but I always liked the Kzinti. I loved having swarms of Drones flying all over the place
The Kzinti always attack before they’re ready.
Federation wins.
What I want to see is Vulcans dealing with Puppeteers.
Of course, the episode is simply a reworking of one of Niven’s short stories in the Ringworld Universe, “Known Space.” The Soft Weapon was one of the more interesting stories of Niven, with much useful information about the kzinti, and the Puppeteers.
I can imagine the animated show being “remastered”, i.e. the animations entirely redone and vastly improved while keeping the original dialog. It would be more of an improvement than touching up the live-action episodes.
The reanimated series?
No, wait, that would be something completely different.
Well, Jeffrey Combs is a regular Trek actor…
More on the Kzinti incarnation in Star Trek: Kzinti | Memory Alpha | Fandom